Pros and Cons of “Every Door Direct Mail” for Small Businesses

The United States Postal Service offers a type of direct mail service to advertisers. It is called “Every Door Direct Mail” (EDDM), and, as a savvy marketer, it is something you should definitely know about.

Basically, EDDM allows you to saturate a particular mail carrier’s route with your direct mail piece, for a lower postage rate than normal mailings.

As with all things, there are pros and cons to this that you need to evaluate based on your situation.

Here are the Pros and Cons of EDDM for your business:

Pros:

• Target prospects based on geographic location
• Lower postage rate — Save $$$
• Saturate certain neighborhoods with your mailing

Cons:

• Cannot target based on demographics like age, gender, or income level.
• Must mail to every address on a particular route.

The Every Door Direct Mail program is NOT a targeted mailing in the sense that you may be used to me saying. What I mean is that the EDDM system can only target houses based on physical location, not by more specific demographics like those mentioned above.

A select group of businesses will benefit from this type of targeting. To find out if your business is one of them, think about this: In the average neighborhood, does every household have a need or want for your products or services?

If you are a restaurant, then maybe the answer is “yes”. After all, everyone does have to eat (Note:  High-end restaurants would not fit in this case). Service-based businesses in industries like HVAC, dental, plumbing, pest control, etc. would also stand a good chance of benefiting from this type of mailing.

If you want to know for sure if you can benefit from Every Door Direct Mail, call 800-628-1804 and one of my marketing consultants will be happy to consult with you — for FREE of course.

Best,

Joy